Paul McCartney Calls Kanye West a Monster

Sir Paul McCartney seemed like a left-field collaborator for Kanye West on “FourFiveSeconds,” their single with Rihanna. So what does the Beatle really think of Yeezy? In an interview with the BBC, McCartney described West as a “monster” and “a crazy guy who comes up with great stuff so he inspires me.” Those 2014 recording sessions bore other fruit, including “All Day,” a song whose lyrics shocked McCartney on first glance.

“I get this track back, a thing called ‘All Day’ [and] he’s taken my melody and he’s made it seriously urban, which is funny because the lyrics use the N-word—a lot!” McCartney said. “‘How long have you been at the mall? All day, n-word.'”

Sir Paul says famous friends like Oprah Winfrey warned him against making the song, fearing that he would wade into controversy.

“It’s a great record, sonically it’s brilliant, but quite a few people said, ‘You can’t be connected with this, there’s, like, 40 N-words!'” he said. “People like Oprah, who are a little conservative about that stuff, she says, ‘You shouldn’t do it, even black people shouldn’t use that word.’ I said, ‘Yeah, but it’s Kanye! And he’s talking about an urban generation that uses that word in a completely different way. It’s the context. So I was actually pleased with it.”